"Sadly, I grew up in something of a bookstore
desert. When you grow up poor and marginalized spatially, that is often the
case. There weren't bookstores of any kind anywhere near our neighborhood. I
had to ride a bus over an hour to reach a Waldenbooks (back when there were
Waldenbooks). It wasn't until I was older and had a car that things changed. I
found the Montclair Book Center, among other places, a bookstore I
still visit regularly.
"But to speak strictly as a writer, I wouldn't be where I
am if not for independent bookstores. My first book, Drown, stayed alive, and
in turn kept my career alive, because independent booksellers continued to put
the book in people's hands long after everyone else had forgotten it. For 11
years, I had no other book and yet indie booksellers kept their faith in me. To
them, I owe very much. I'll definitely be in a lot of indie bookstores on this
tour, as many as will have me."
--Junot Díaz, who will be a keynote speaker at
the American Booksellers Association's 2018
Winter Institute in Memphis, in a q&a
with Bookselling This Week
No comments:
Post a Comment